Hard disk drives are data storage devices that store and retrieve digital information or data using one or more rotating disks that are coated with magnetic material. Data is written to the disks and read from the disks by magnetic heads that are positioned on a moving actuator arm. In more particularity, a transducing head carried by a slider is used to read from and write to a data track on each disk, wherein each slider has an air bearing surface that is supportable by a cushion of air generated by one of the rotating disks. The slider is carried by an arm assembly that includes an actuator arm and a suspension assembly, which can include a gimbal structure.
Computers typically include one or more of these hard disk drives that are mounted into a computer chassis. In order to facilitate such a mounting, the disk drives typically include a housing with a baseplate and cover. These components of the housing provide the primary stiffness and damping to the hard disk drive structure, wherein the material and geometry of the housing components, along with their attachment to other components, determine the robustness and performance of the hard disk drive during shock events and normal operation. As hard disk drives continue to get thinner, such as for mobile device requirements, this robustness is more difficult to maintain, which can result in excessive deflection and undesirable contact between components. This can be particularly true for shock events such as dropping of the device, which can cause both excessive acceleration and deflection of the computer and structures mounted therein.
In presently available systems, the baseplate of the housing is mounted directly to the chassis of the system with a series of screws. However, there is a need to improve the mounting of hard disk drives to a chassis that minimizes the amount of shock that is delivered to the disk, actuator arm, and slider of the hard disk drive during shock events.